Puella Magi Divina Commedia
by Col. Sayaka Miki
Summary: Eight sorry souls condemned to the Inferno. Three will search through the fires of hell for their friends, but will they be able to cope with what they find? Warning: Contains as realistic descriptions of Inferno as I could manage. That means violence, horror, torture, suffering, and everyone's naked.


In words I did not know it was written, this I knew. Yet the words I saw resting before my eyes were ones I knew well the meaning. Affixed on the arch, arranged in stone carving, the words greeted me and made me lose my courage in an instant. I could not but feel myself begin to weep as those words and their meaning was clear to me.

_"Through me you pass into the city of woe:_  
_Through me you pass into eternal pain:_  
_Through me among the people lost forever._  
_Justice moved the founder of my fabric:_  
_To raise me was the task of power divine,_  
_Supremest wisdom, and primeval love._  
_Before me things created were none_  
_Save things eternal, and eternal I endure._  
_Abandon all hope, you who enter here."_

Before me stood a gateway, grander than any structure I had laid eyes upon in my lifetime. Without question, for I had no right to question it, I ventured forth. Where I was I knew not for certain, but I felt it in my mind and heart and soul that I was not alive.

The grandeur of this place left me staggering, it's sheer magnitude stealing away my breath. The air was hot, but I could feel it was worse further in. A shame, I thought, for I was surely required to travel further in. No soul should have ever found themself in this accursed place, yet the voices I hear tell me that many inhabit the dark realm.

To the gates I walked, only stopping to realize there were other souls around me. Familiar souls to me, but in this light I did not know them. Only the color of them could I perceive outside the gates. One gentle yellow glowed, one raging red burned, one sorrowful blue rippled. Soft white was a mirage, dark black was empty, frightened green shuddered, and a strong purple longed dearly.

It was not until I stepped through the gates that I became aware. This horrible place, this inferno, was my destiny. I saw clear now what was truth and what was falsehood, but was too late to change my end. My sin I knew, though my punishment was not yet made clear. I feared what was to come.

The first, though mildest, of the horrors of hell came to my sight just within the gate. Clothing, or any sort of covering, appeared to have been withheld from my immortal soul. There was little one could do in such a place, where far greater torture would await.

Eight sorry souls we were, making our way to the river ahead of us now. Many souls covered the river's banks, most shouting angrily in a multitude of languages I did not know. The souls around me seemed to agitate, beginning to join the angry mass. The green soul hid. The yellow soul just watched. We heard horrid things said by our companions that I cannot recount.

A man in a boat. An old man with a long white beard, pushing his ferry along the river, made his way to the river banks. His hard face and stern features gave way when he saw myself and the two beside. It was hard to tell what made him look at me that way, but he beckoned to us. Forgetting myself, I went to him and stepped onto the ferry. The other two, green and yellow, joined me there with others who had remained calm at the shores.

The other souls, clamoring and shouting, cursing and thrashing about, latched onto the side of the boat as the old man pushed off. Those of us within the boat were silent, having no choice but to listen and hear the voices of those outside being pulled through the water.

Not much was to tell of there on that journey, but on the other side we found ourselves changed. On the shores on the other side of the river, it seemed as though my eyes ceased to simply see, but began to also understand what was around me.

"Madoka. You're here too."

The voice carried sadness. Sorrow not only for themself, but for me. It was unthinkable here that anyone would continue to think of others, but that was now all we had: each other.

I knew these two souls alongside me here. "Mami... Hitomi..."

The others that had traversed the river within the ferry began walking together, trekking to a city I could see now in the distance. Now on this side of the river, there was all manner of green. The air was clean. It was almost like heaven, if not that I could still hear the screams coming from below. The souls towed along through the water by the ferry forgotten to our minds, we three followed the rest towards the city.


End file.
